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Its Attractions as a Summer Resort— A 

Visit to the Shakers— History of the 

Town — Columbia Hall — 

Railroad Guide, 

Etc., Etc. 




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^BANON SPR,;Vgs o N.Y. 



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BEG to announce that the Columbia Hall 
property will be put in complete order in all its 
appointments, many of the rooms refurnished, 
and the house furnished with all the requisites to 
make it a 

FIRST-OLASS HOTEL 

in every respect. The grounds, Avhich now compose 
about 

THIRTY-EIGHT ACRES, 

with the proverbially healthy locality, natural ad- 
vantages and improvements, make Lebanon Springs 
one of the 

Host Popular Watering Places in the Country. 



THIS HOTEL HAS AMPLE ACCOMMODATIONS 
FOR THREE HUNDRED GUESTS. 

OPEN FROM JUNE lOth TO OCTOBER 1st. 



COLUMBIA HALL. 



AMUSEMENTS. 

Drives, walks, bowling, hunting, fishing, croquet, 
billiards, etc. 

LIVERY. , 

In connection with the Hotel is a good livery, 
where horses and carriages can be found ; also ample 
accommodations for jorivate carriages and horses. 
The roads and drives are unsurpassed. 

MUSIC 
will be in attendance throughout the season. 

TELEGRAPH. 

The Western Union Telegraph Company have an 
office in the building. 

READING. 

A stand is kept in the Hotel, where books, periodi- 
cals and daily 23apers may be found. 





Lebanon Springs, 

Columbia County, N. Y. 

Qi|f^OLUMBIA HALL is a large Hotel, situated 

^^)) on the slope of the hill, about three hundred 

f^M feet above the valley, and one thousand feet 

Wim above tide-water. Larsre plav-2rrounds for 

4> children are near the Hotel, fronting east, 
south and west, surrounded with beautiful shade- 
trees ; three stores, Baptist, Episcoj^al, Catholic and 
Presbyterian Churches, are but a short distance from 
the Springs. 

The Scenery, which characterizes this spot, is of 
almost indescribable beauty, being so diversified by 
Mountain and Valley Landscape, as to elicit the most 
unbounded admiration of the beholder. The general 
remark of travelers has been, that no prospect they 
had ever seen could bear a comparison with it. 

Its healthfulness, also, is proverbial, conducive of 
which is the pure Mountain air, the Mineral Spring, 
beautiful drives. Hunting and Fishing, and the usual 
variety of local amusements. 

Before the Revolution, the efficacy of the water 
began to excite great interest, and many families from 



COLUMBIA HALL. 



different cities have become so much attached to the 
place that they have made it their summer home for 
more thau twenty consecutive years. The hill-slopes 
which guard the valley present eligible sites for cot- 
tages. 

Not more than six hours at the most, and the New 
York passenger will find himself at the depot, a 
short distance from the " Hall." The completion of 
the Harlem Extension Railroad renders it easy of 
access. Standing on the piazza, we look over the 
Lebanon Valley, bounded on the east by the Berk- 
shire Hills, on the south and west by the West Range. 
To the north-west the valley reaches away in fertile 
beauty to the pleasant village of Nassau, on the road 
to Albany. Maple Hill, to the south-east, rises with 
an easy slope from the clustering hamlet at our feet, 
and a mile distant lies the village of New Lebanon. 
The Wyomanock Creek (its naaie of Indian origin) 
flows through the valley, blending its waters with the 
Kinderhook on its Avay to the Hudson. It seems to 
be "shut in by hills from the rude world" — and a 
poetic quiet rests over this picture in repose like that 
which (in our imagination) rested upon the halls of 
Merrie England. It seems to carry one back to the 
days of Spenser, when nature found true worshipers 
in verse ; or still further back to the Augustan age, 
when the Campagna was a garden instead of a desert, 
and pastoral poetry was quoted in the palaces of the 
Caesars. From the days of " Queechy " to the visit 



COLUMBIA HALL. 



of Sir Henry Vincent, a little more than a year ago, 
every writer has been enthusiastic in speaking of this 
lovely section. Vincent, in his letter, says : " Hills, 
mountains, valleys, trees, gardens, farm-houses and 
farms spread around and above you in ever-varying 
beauty, reminding one of the hills and valleys of 
Langollen in Wales." And you remember in Miss 
Warner's " Queechy " a fine description of the view 
from one of the neighboring hills : 

" They (Fleda and Carleton) had reached a height 
of the mountain that cleared them a view, and over 
the tops of the trees they looked abroad to a very wide 
extent of country undulating with hill and vale— hill 
and valley alike far below at their feet. Fair and rich 
the gently-swelling hills, one beyond another in the 
patchwork dress of their many-colored fields — the gay 
hues of the woodland, softened and melted into a rich 
autumn glow — and far away beyond even where this 
glow was softened and lost in the distance, the faint 
blue line of the Catskills. faint, but clear and distinct 
through the transparent air. And such a sky ! Of 
such etherealized purity as if made for spirits to travel 
in, and tempting them to rise and free themselves 
from the soil ; and stillness — like nature's hand laid 
upon the soul, biddiug it think." Little Fleda at 
Montepoole takes one far back into the history of 
Lebanon when the old sycamore cast a smaller 
shadow ; when stages and coaches connected with 
tide-water at Albany ; when Irving was the wander- 
1* 



COLUMBIA HALL. 



ing Knickerbocker of the Hudson, writing at old Kin- 
derhook, at the house of his old friend, Mr. Van Ness, 
the history of New York. 

It hardly seems possible that in the year 1770 a 
town pauper declared that he would not put a brush 
fence about the valley to have been its owner. The 
whole valley was an immense pine forest, some of the 
trees being two hundred feet in height. It is said that 
a man by the name of Hitchcock, from New Haven, 
stuck a riding-stick into the spring. It has now 
grown into one of the finest sycamores in the world. 

Montepoole, or " Columbia Hall," has progressed 
with a steady growth, and now it has almost a half 
mile of verandas. The Mountain Bower, on Prospect 
Hill, is completed. It is located to the west of the 
Hall, and oue hundred feet above it. * It is about half 
way to the Pinnacle, which, at the height of three 
hundred feet,- overlooks the valley. If the beauty of 
the landscape, which from every point meets and 
focalizes itself in the soul as we stand at this eminence, 
could be written in words or impressed on electrotype 
plates, it might be worth w^hile, but not understanding 
the art of spiritual photography, we can only say, in 
the words of Goldsmith, " Every breath breathes 
health, and every sound is but the echo of tran- 
quility ;" or, in older English, we would lead you 

" To painted flowers, to trees upshooting hye, 
To dales for shade, to hills for breathing space, 
To trembling groves, and chrystall runniiig by." 



COLUMBIA HALL. 



Special arrangements can be made for permanent 
board for the season, or by the week, from $10.00 
a week upwards. The Hotel is supplied with fresh 
vegetables daily from the garden connected with it, 
and also with an abundance of fresh butter, eggs, 
berries, milk, poultry and mountain lamb, from the 
surrounding country, while from the Shakers we get 
elegant fruit and cottage cheese. 

S^" Persons desiring to apply for rooms by letter 
or telegraph, will please address the Proprietor, 

Jjfbanon Springs, Colmnhia Co., N, Y.; 

or DANIEL GALE, 

Hotel Jjafayette^ Jt^hiladelpliia, I*a.; 

' or GEO. H. GALE, 

JVo. 6 Warren Street, N. T. 




^n>^HE Thermal, or Warm Medicinal Spring, 
^1^ is inclosed iu the court-yard of the Hotel. It 
l|^f discharges constantly nearly five hundred gal- 
I Ions of water per minute, of the temperature of 
73° F., and supplies a bathing-house within the 
inclosure. These baths are a luxury to all who par- 
take of them, and are especially recommended by 
physicians as a specific in many diseases, and have 
been found as efficacious as the warm Medicinal 
Springs of Germany and Virginia, for the complaints 
for which they are visited. 

Analysis of Lebanon Springs Water, by Prof, H. Dussauce. 

FOUND IN ONE GALLON OF WATER. 

GASES. 

Oxygen 2.00 cubic inches. Carbonic Acid. ..0.50 cubic inches. 

Nitrogen 3.50 " Sulphuric Acid..traces. 

FIXED MATTERS. 

Sulphuret of Sodium 0.02 grains— 1.298 per ct. 

Carbonate of Soda 2.41 " 15.649 " 

Sulphate of Potash 1.04 " C.753 " 

Chloride of Sodium 0.96 " 6.233 " 

Carbonate of Lime 4,05 " 26.292 " 

Sulphate of Magnesia 1.06 " 6.883 " 

Alumina 0.45 " 2.629 " 

Oxide of Iron 0.94 " 6.103 " 

Silicia Acid 3.25 " 21.100 " 

Ore- CoTn i Glarine 0.75 " 4.870 

urg.com. ^Baregine, 9.47 " 2.190 ' 

15.40 100.000 



COLUMBIA HALL. 



Many eminent physicians, acquainted with its prop- 
erties, have recommended its use for the following, 
viz. : Eczema, Flesh Poisoning, Impetigo, many va- 
rieties of Erysipelas, Scald Head, Cutaneous Diseases 
generally, Arthritis, Morbid Conditions of the Liver, 
Constipation, Dyspepsia, Chronic and Inflammatory 
Rheumatism, Bronchia and ISTervous Diseases gener- 
ally. 

A resident Physician of high standing in the pro- 
fession will render his services when desired. 






BATH HOUSE 



TJnT'HE Bath House is a new brick building, 
^^ located in the court-yard of the Hotel, eighty- 
^"f seven feet long by thirty-two feet wide, with 
French roof. The ladies' part of the house con- 
tains a reception-room, nine apartments with 
both hot and natural spring-water baths, swimming 
bath, and swimming bath for children. The gen- 
tlemen's building contains ten apartments, with both 
hot and natural spring-water baths, and a swimming 
bath thirty feet long. All the inside arrangements 
are modern and of the most improved kind. With 
the well-known invigorating qualities of the Avater for 
bathing, toojether with having so great a luxury con- 
venient to the Hotel, and the benefit visitors receive 
by bathing in the water, it will amply repay them for 
taking a trip to Lebanon Springs. 



COLUMBIA HALL. H 



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^ni^HE Drives in the neighborhood of the Springs 
^j^ are unsurpassed by any watering-place in the 
^'f country, whether it be along the beautiful val- 
m) ley roads leading to Nassau, to Queechy Lake, 
and to WilliamstowD, Mass., or surmounting 
the hills and mountains which encompass the place in 
almost every direction, where new beauties open to 
the view with every mile. The ride from Lebanon to 
Pittsfield, over the Taghkanick Mountain, is unsur- 
passed for beauty and magnificence, whether by the 
old post-road from Boston to Albany, or by way of 
the Lebanon and Hancock Shaker villages. At every 
turn in the ascent new beauties burst upon the enrap- 
tured traveler's view ; and on the summit the country, 
sixty miles in extent, presents itself like a map at the 
feet of the beholder. Here, in a clear day, the distant 
Catskills may be seen from the Hildeberghs west of 
Albany, to the Sugar Loaf far below Catskill village. 
From many points the Catskill Mountain House can 
be plainly seen by the naked eye, and stretches of the 
Hudson River traced, with steamers and sail-vessels 
passing upon its waters. From a point a little distance 
from the highway, a good view of the upper part of 



COLUMBIA HALL. 



13 



the City of Albany can be seen, and with a good glass 
the buildings can be easily recognized. Perry's Peak, 
a station of the U. S. Coast. Survey, lies within two 
hours' drive from the Hotel, and is frequently visited 
in the summer. Here an uninterrupted view can be 
made across the State of Connecticut to Long Island 
Sound. Douglass and Churchill knobs are also lofty 
elevations, sometimes visited, yet not so easily sur- 
mounted, but a view from their summits ampl}^ pays 
for the labor of their ascent. But the splendid drives 
in every direction, over good roads with more gentle 
grades, will satisfy most of those who love diversified 
and beautiful scenery, and Avho have sufficient poetic 
ardor to climb the rugged mountain in order to see 

more. 

DISTANCES. 



Queechv Lake 6 mi 

Pittsfield 7 

Lenox 12 

Stockbridge 12 

Canaan 7 

New Lebanon 2 

Hancock 5 



es. Shaker Village 2 miles. 

B. Y. Shakers 2 " 

Summit Berkshire Moun- 
tains 3 " 

Williamstown 20 " 

Mt. Washington 18 " 

Gt. Barrington 21 " 








rcl 



•HE largest Society in America of that religious 
I^JLl^ sect known as the Shakers, is located within two 
miles of the Springs. They are visited annu- 
ally by thousands of strangers, who take great 
interest in their peculiar manner of living and 
worship. Visitors are received into their various 
workshops and gardens, throughout the week, and are 
admitted to their church-meetings on the Sabbath. 

This Society is the largest in the United States. 
They number some six hundred persons, and have 
possessions of some six thousand acres of land, devoted 
to farming purposes, gardens for seeds and fruits, etc., 
which are everywhere famed for their quality. 

A visit to this Society alone to attend their worship 
on the Sabbath, and to possess articles of their work- 
manship, which are unique and useful, amply repays 
the visitor. 

Sir Henry Vincent, the English Orator, writes : 
" Let me urge upon divines and scholars, in their 
rambles through America, to visit the Shaker Com- 
munity at Mount Lebanon, and if they are disposed 
to inquire, ' How can these things be?' my answer is, 
' Come and see.' " 



COLUMBIA HALL. 15 

Prof. SiLLiMAN says : " The utmost neatness is 
conspicuous in their fields, gardens, court-yards, out- 
houses, and in the very road ; not a weed, not a spot 
of filth, or any nuisance, is suffered to exist. Their 
wood is cut and piled in the most exact order ; their 
fences are perfect ; even their stone walls are con- 
structed with great regularity, and of materials so 
very massive, and so well arranged, that unless over- 
thrown by force, they may stand for centuries. In- 
stead of wooden posts for their gates, they have pil- 
lars of stone of one solid piece, and everything bears 
the impress of labor, vigilance and skill, with such a 
share of taste as is consistent with the austerities of 
their sect. Their orchards are beautiful, and probably 
no part of our country presents finer examples of 
agricultural excellence. Such neatness and order is 
not seen anywhere on so large a scale, except in 
Holland, where the very necessities of existence im- 
pose order and neatness upon the whole population ; 
but here it is voluntary. 

" Besides agriculture, it is well known that the 
Shakers occupy themselves much with mechanical 
employments. The productions of their industry and 
skill — sieves, brushes, boxes, pails and other domestic 
utensils — are everywhere exposed for sale, and are 
distinguished by excellence of Avorkmanship. Their 
garden seeds are celebrated for goodness, and find a 
ready market. They have many gardens, but there 



16 COLUMBIA HALL. 



is a principal one of several acres, which exhibits 
superior cultivation. 

" Their females are employed in domestic manufac- 
tures and housework, and the community is fed and 
clothed by its own productions. The property is all 
in common. The avails of the general industry are 
poured into the treasury of the whole: individual 
wants are supplied from a common magazine or store- 
house, which is kept for each family, and ultimately, 
the elders invest the gains in lands and buildings, or 
sometimes in money, or other personal property, which 
is held for the good of the Society. It seems some- 
what paradoxical to speak of a family, Avhere the 
relation upon which it is founded is unknown. But 
still, the Shakers are assembled in what they call 
families, which consist of little collections (more or 
less numerous according to the size of the house) of 
males and females, who occupy separate apartments, 
under the same roof, eat at separate tables, but mix 
occasionally for society, labor or worship. There is 
a male and a female head to the family, who superin- 
tend all their concerns — give out their provisions — 
allot their employments, and enforce industry and 
fidelity. They profess, it is said, to believe that Christ 
has already appeared the second time on the earth, in 
the person of their great leader, Mother Ann Lee, 
and that the saints are now judging the world. 

" This singular people took their rise in England 
nearly a century ago, and the settlement at New 



COLUMBIA HALL. 17 



Lebanon is of more than sixty years' standing. They 
first emigrated to America in the year 1774, under 
their spiritual mother, Ann Lee, a niece of the cele- 
brated Gen. Charles Lee, who made a distinguished 
figure during the American Revolutionary War. The 
order, neatness, comfort and thrift, Avhich are conspic- 
uous among them, are readily accounted for by their 
industry, economy, self-denial and devotion to their 
leaders, and to the common interest, all of which are 
religious duties among them, and, the very fact that 
they are, for the most part, not burdened with the 
care of children, leaves them greatly at liberty to fol- 
low their occupations without interruption. They 
walk to the meeting-house, in order, two in two, and 
leave it in the same order. Men enter the left-hand 
door of the meeting-house, and women the right-hand. 
In each dwelling-house is a room called the meeting- 
room, in which they assemble for worship every even- 
ing. The young believers assemble morning and 
evening, atid in the afternoon of the Sabbath they all 
assemble in one of these rooms, in their dwelling- 
house, to which meeting, spectators, or those wdio do 
not belong to the Society, are not admitted, except 
friendly visitors. Their houses are well calculated 
and convenient. In the great house at Lebanon 
there are over a hundred ; the men live in their sev- 
eral apartments on the right, and the women on the 
left, commonly four in a room. They kneel in the 
morning by the side of the bed as soon as they arise, 
2* 



18 COLUMBIA HALL. 



and the same before they lie down ; also before and 
after every meal. The brethren and sisters generally 
eat at the same time at two long tables placed in the 
kitchen, men at one and women at the other ; during 
which time they sit on benches and all are silent. 
They go to their meals walking in order, one directly 
after the other ; the head of the family, or elder, 
takes the lead of the men, and one called elder sister 
takes the lead of the women. Several women are 
employed in cooking and waiting on the table ; they 
are commonly relieved weekly by others. 

" It is according to the gift or order for all to en- 
deavor to keep all things in order ; indolence and 
carlessness, they say, is directly opposite to the Gos- 
pel and order of God ; cleanliness in every respect is 
strongly enforced — it is contrary to order even to spit 
on the floor. A dirty, careless, slovenly or indolent 
person, they say, cannot travel in the way of God, or 
be religious. It is contrary to order to talk loud, to 
shut doors hard, to rap at a door for admittance, or to 
make a noise in any respect ; even when walking the 
floor, they must be careful not to make a noise with 
their feet. They go to bed at nine or ten o'clock and 
rise at four or five ; all that are in health go to work 
about sun-rise ; in-door mechanics, in winter, work by 
candle-light ; each one follows such an employment as 
the deacon appoints for him. Every man and woman 
must be employed and work steadily and moderately. 
When any are sick they have the utmost care and 



COLUMBIA HALL. 



19 



attention paid to them. When a man is sick, if 
there is a Avoman among the sisters who was his wife 
before he believed, she, if in health, nurses and waits 
upon him. If any of them transgress the rules and 
orders of the Church, they are not held in union un- 
til they confess their transgression, and that often on 
their knees before the brethren and sisters. 

" Each Church in the different settlements has a 
house called the office, where all business is transacted 
either among themselves or with other people. Each 
family deposits in the office all that is to be sjoared for 
charitable purposes, which is distributed by the dea- 
con to those whom he judges to be proper objects of 
charity. He never sends the poor and needy empty 
away." 



^'cr- 




^mS LEBINOM 



A BRIEF HISTORICAL SKETCH. 

fS there anything in a name ? New Lebanon can 
boast of having an ancient Hebrew name, which 
fhas been always celebrated in the annals of sacred 
* history. Among the States having townships 
called Lebanon, are Alabama, Connecticut, Illinois, 
Kentucky, New Hampshire and Virginia ; while New 
York has two such townships. Of the names of early 
settlers of the Lebanon to which this notice refers, are 
those of Abbot, Adgate, Bailey, Bradley, Cole, Corn- 
well, Dean, Doubleday, Everest, Gay, Gilbert, Gillet, 
Grant, Hatch, Hitchcock, Horton, Jones, King, 
Hurdock, Owen, Patterson — the not unromantic Peter 
Plum — Spencer, Tilden, Van Deusen, Wadhams, 
Warner and Younglove. To this alphabetical list 
may be added — though out of its place — that of 
Douglass, borne here by a family of Scotch descent, 
and boasting a long line of noble ancestors. The 
name of Warner will always be honorably associated 
with the fame of the accomj^lished author of 
" Queechy." With the name of Gillet is happily 
associated one who, at " Wyomanock" and "Sunny- 
side," is known by a pet household name, which he 
has nobly gained by being the "good friend" to all 



COLUMBIA HALL. 21 

with whom he has there met, and by kindly assisting 
those little favored by fortune, to gain a knowledge of 
books which otherwise they Avould have been unable 
to procure. Abner Doubleday was the grandfather 
of Gen. Abner Doubleday, of Fort Sumter fame. He 
and Jonathan Murdock were of those who constituted 
the "forlorn hope" at the storming of Stony Point. 
Moses Younglove was a member of the convention to 
form a constitution of the State of New York. Many 
of the descendants of the afore-named persons still live 
among us as respected citizens. 

The first white man permanently settled in the old 
town of Canaan, was doubtless named Warner. He 
came from New England through the gap in the moun- 
tains at West Stockbridge. Probably the first white 
man who ever visited Ne^v Lebanon, was Capt. Hitch- 
cock of the British army, which was stationed at 
Hartford, Conn., about the time of the close of the 
French war. Capt. H. being afflicted with some 
severe and dangerous malady, was recommended to 
visit the valley and use the waters of the thermal 
spring in this town. He came with one servant and 
a company of Indian guides, and was carried from 
Stockbridge to the springs en a litter by an Indian 
trail, there being no roads in the locality at that time. 
He found a large basin filled with water, and from 
appearances around it judged it to be a place of resort 
for the Indians for bathing purposes. 

This was, perhaps, the first watering-place in the 



22 COLUMBIA HALL. 



United States visited by the "pale faces" over a 
hundred years ago. It is often called " Monte Poole." 
The mercury in the thermometer always standing at 
72°, a temperature suitable for bathing at all times. 
It is said that one of the early settlers once riding by 
a spring stopped to water his horse, and sticking his 
rude whip into the soft earth, rode off forgetting it, 
from which impromptu planting, sprang the gigantic 
button-wood tree Avhich stands near the spring. Cap- 
tain Hitchcock camped several days at the spring, 
and received great relief from the use of its waters. 
A few years after, he sold his commission and returned 
as a resident to New^ Lebanon, where he died, leaving 
a daughter from whom descended one of our old and 
highly esteemed citizens, Nathaniel Nichols. Among 
later settlers was a Rev. Mr. Kendall, who first came 
here from Canada on the trail of the Indians, to 
whom he had gone as missionary. He afterwards 
dwelt in the valley, where his descendants still abide, 
and carry on extensive business in the manufiicture 
of barometers and thermometers. 

In this beautiful valley is the great medicine manu- 
factory of Messrs. Tilden, unsurpassed by any in the 
country. Further information may be obtained by 
visiting the establishment, where the kindest attention 
is bestowed upon the visitor. 

About 1760 a house was erected near the Springs, 
and was doubtless the first one built in what is now 
called New Lebanon. This part of the town up to 



COLUMBIA HALL. 23 



1780 was considered a part of Massachusetts. Much 
difficulty existed at an early day between New York 
and the New England States in regard to their com- 
mon boundary line. New York, indeed, originally 
claimed the Connecticut Kiver as its eastern boundary. 
The General. Court of Massachusetts made grants of 
land after the settlement of Pittsfield, exttnding 
nearly to the road which passes the dwelling of Dr. 
Bates ; and still farther northw^ard, an old road 
formerly existed and can still be traced through an 
orchard now owned by the heirs of Naomi Clark, 
which was once considered to be on the line between 
the two States. The line was established in 1786, 
though not without a great deal of trouble and a 
disagreeable law suit. An anecdote was current in 
early times that a man named Wadbams (one of the 
early settlers), after the Commissioners had fixed the 
State line, found his dwelling to be about four rods 
within the State of Massachusetts. Accordingly a 
day or two after, he called his neighbors together with 
their teams and hitching the latter to the building, he 
moved it over the line into the State of New York. 
This building stood on the ground now occupied by 
the house of Elijah Bagg. 

The first frame house in the town of Canaan (of 
which Lebanon was formerly a part, and was then 
called King's district,) was erected by William Gay 
on the hill near the Shaker grist mill. The second 
was built by Selah Abbot, near the Presbyterian 
Church. 



24 COLUMBIA HALL. 



The first church in the town of New Lebanon was 
erected nearly opposite Mott Cemetery, on land now 
owned by the Gillets. It was constructed of logs, and 
its worshipers were of the Presbyterian order. 

New Lebanon claims the honor of having been 
first in instructing its Delegates in Congress to adopt 
a Declaration of Independence. Mechlenburg, N. 
C, had previously declared itself absolved from its 
allegiance to Great Britain. 

A company was raised in the town of Canaan which 
was in service duriug the Revolutionary war. The 
descendants of some who served still reside among us 
as our best citizens. Chancellor R. Livingston was 
appointed delegate from this section to the Provin- 
cial Cougress, and he was one of the committee ap- 
pointed to prepare the Declaration of Independence. 
It was he who supplied Robert Fulton with means 
for developing the steamboat. At the time of the 
battle of Bennington, Vt., April 10, 1776, two 
brothers (ancestors of Hon. R. F. Gillett), who hap- 
pened, at the time, to be working near the top of the 
" west hill," distinctly heard the booming of the can- 
non, although they were a hundred miles distant from 
the scene of action. 

The valley of New Lebanon is surrounded on all 
sides by mountains, which seem to shut out all the 
world beyond. From some of the summits may be 
obtained enchanting views of the valley and of the re- 
gion beyond it. From " west hill " Mount Lebanon 



CX)LUMBIA HALL. 25 

is distinctly visible. Its pleasant village, clustered 
among the hills, forms a sort of city by itself Here 
are the head-quarters of Shakerism in the United 
States. " Gilbert Hill " is most frequently visited, 
where the finest views of the surrounding country are 
sought. From its summit the whole village is dis- 
tinctly seen, and seems so diminutive that it has been 
compared to " fairy-land teeming with life." From 
one of its southern points, in clear weather, boats 
have been seen on the Hudson River, and still beyond, 
the Catskill mountains, lifting their blue crests against 
the sky, which any but a close observer would mis- 
take, perhaps, for clouds hovering about the horizon. 
Of such a scene the beautiful words of William Mor- 
ris may be quoted as fitly descriptive : 

"As doAvn into the vale he gazed, 
And held his breath as if amazed 
By all its loveliness ; 
For as the sun its depths did bless, 
It lighted up from side to side. 
A close shut valley, nothing wide 
But ever full of all things fair." 

The historian Bancroft once said, with more force than 
elegance, perhaps: " New Lebanon is the most beau- 
tiful valley on the top of the earth." 

The state of the country one hundred and fifty 
years ago was strikingly different from its present 
aspect. Then it was a vast swamp completely covered 
with large pine trees, rendering it well nigh impassa- 
ble. The Indians traveled across the mountain-tops, 
but seldom venturing far into the wilderness of pines. 



26 CXDLUMBIA HALL. 



The population fifty years ago was estimated to ex- 
ceed greatly the present number of inhabitants. At 
that time the people had begun to remove some of the 
pine trees from the edge of the forests, and to build 
nearer the foot of the mountains. After a time they 
left the heights altogether and settled in the valley 
" Wyomanock Seminary," the individual enterprise 
of Miss E. C. Hatch, was established about 1858, and 
incorporated in 1885 by the legislature of New York. 
The first small building was greatly enlarged in 1867, 
and the whole destroyed by fire January 6, 1869, 
since which time the school has found pleasant quar- 
rers in the new Tilden Academy, near the church. The 
beneficial eflTect of this Institution is seen far and near 
upon those preparing for, or entering upon, the busy 
scenes of life. The influence of Miss Hatch has ex- 
tended over the whole country, and she is highly es- 
teemed for the increasing eflTorts which she has put 
forth to promote the well-being of those placed under 
her care. Through her kindness and that of our good 
" Saint Wyomanock," many acknowledge with grate- 
ful hearts, advantages received from those whose motto 
is : " Do unto others as you would that others should 
do unto you." Many also remember the care with 
which they have been watched over by Miss Hatch 
when compelled, by sickness, to relinquish school 
duties for a time. 



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